The passengers were deeply shocked when they found themselves at the airport in the Red Sea city instead of the international airport in the Saudi capital, Saudi news site Sabq reported on Sunday.

No explanation was given how Flight 731 with more than 200 passengers on board ended up almost 1,000km west of the announced destination.

The Pakistani company provided buses to transport the passengers to the capital and offered them food and drinks, Sabq said.

Some of the passengers speculated that the plane was originally scheduled to fly to Jeddah, but accepted to take people who had booked to go to Riyadh without informing them they would be flying to Jeddah.

Other passengers called for stringent action against the pilot in case he is found to have committed the mistake of landing at the wrong airport, the news site said.

Readers’ comments were mainly sympathetic with the passengers and expressed their support as they had to be driven overland for almost 1,000km.

In January, human body parts fell from the sky in the Saudi Arabian city of Jeddah, with police saying they could be the remains of someone trapped in an aircraft's undercarriage bay.

NTJ/SHI